Zedebee said:
Chris_D said:
Zedebee said:
Edit - the stormforce cover is great, but it’s not practical for a daily.
I'd say it depends how much effort you're willing to put in, or not, in placing it or taking it off and how much value you put on protecting the whole car or only part of the car.
3 minutes for a Cabrioshield giving part-ptotection, or 5 minutes for a Stormforce giving full protection.
Totally different user cases but hardly a world of difference when it comes to the effort required utilising either of them.
With respect, it’s not just the putting on and taking off, where I agree with you there’s only a couple of minutes difference. With the stormforce you’ve got to fold it up properly to have any chance of getting it back on quickly, which is no joke if it’s even vaguely windy; and it’s also quite difficult to keep water out of it if it’s raining. There’s no question it’s the best if the car is being stored outside, but when you are using it as a daily, the half cover is so much more convenient. No one drives to work and puts a full cover on in the car park, but you might reasonably deploy a cabrioshield if you are worried about water ingress.
Nah.
I think you're presuming a lot and talking from the perspective of not actually having owned or used a Stormforce cover.
Once you have your deployment/re-deployment technique down it's a piece of p!ss to fold and unfold, even in the wind.
As far as 'keeping water out of it if it's raining' I'm not sure what you mean there. It gets wet if it's raining, but don't all covers?
There was a period when I was dailying the zed to a place where I was doing some consulting work here in NL during the summer and my allocated space in the car park was right below a canopy of silver maple, one of the most prolific sap-producers of the tree kingdom. I decided I would expend the 10 mins out of each day using the stormforce cover, making sure the whole car was covered and protected from sticky sap. Job done. Easy.
I also noticed a few other drivers close by had invested in some of those cheaper Lidl covers. Influenced maybe.
I also used it during the winter months when frost would invariably cover the whole car overnight as well as by the end of the day and the cover proved perfect for retaining the warmth from the engine on the run into the office every day and preventing frost from forming, ergo saving me possibly more time from having to de-frost the windows. Folded up and stuffed into a binliner in the boot before driving home. Easy. 20 mins for 2 deployments and 2 redeployments.
Granted, not much advantage over a Cabrioshield in this user case but then when it snows you can protect the whole car and just shake off the snow from the cover before stuffing it in the boot.
Again, I would suggest it comes down to how much effort you're willing to expend and what value you put on protecting the paint; a few minutes more for total coverage, or a few minutes less for partial coverage.
Where the Stormforce really proves its' worth is protecting the paint from birdsh!t stains when covered for any length of time.
I've come back from long trips to find the birds/ducks had been using the zed for target practice and felt relieved that it didn't get to the paint underneath the Stormforce and start burning it's way through the clear coat.
Horses for courses. Swings and roundabouts.
